Therese Sullivan’s “How 2016 CTA-Goers Made It Their Night.” By Therese Sullivan, editor of BuildingContext.me. To watch Ken Smyers and Eric Stromquist manage every detail of the ControlTrends Awards is a lesson in how to be the ultimate hosts. They made it happen on January 29, 2017, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas, NV. But, as if by magic – and there was a lot of that — the party moved out of their hands and seemed to be owned by everyone else in the room at large. The way the community is embracing this event is a sure sign that the CTAs will live on for many years to come. The CTAs have become an important night to many, and serve a variety of community-building functions.

ControlTrends covers the Optergy smart building control system

A Sneak Peak at Proton Optergy. ust got this video from our friend Steve Guzelimian. Steve is bringing the Proton Optergy smart buildings solution to North America. Proton won the global ControlTtrends Awards for Light Commercial Solution of the Year, and is a viable competitor in the “Race to the Small Space“. After seeing this cool video, look for Optergy to be a competitor in the Most Impactful Video Award at the 2017 ControlTrends Awards. You can hear what Steve had to say about Optery’s North American Strategy on the November 20th Episode of ControlTalk Now The Smart Buildings Video and Podcast.

ControlTalk NOW’s first interview is a ControlTrends Awards wrap-up with EasyIO’s Mike Marston, on his way to Australia, after finishing a 2-day training session in Pittsburgh, PA. EasyIO is people, products, and applied technology on the move. Congratulations to EasyIO for winning four ControlTrends Awards. The EasyIO FW-14 wireless controller is only getting better! Register now for the EasyIO World Conference, Manchester United UK – 22 May 2017.

ControlTalk NOW’s second interview is with Ken Sinclair, who reviews the Connection Community Collaboratory session at the 2017 AHR Expo, the ControlTrends Awards, and previews the theme of his 2017 March edition of Automated Buildings “Engaging Satisfaction & Wellness.” Ever insightful, here’s a piece from Ken’s editorial: “I am in awe of the power bestowed upon us and our potential as an industry to have a significant impact on the wellness and overall satisfaction of the occupants of our automated, connected, smart, living, buildings. Increasing satisfaction and wellness by engagement means creating a dialog path that flows both ways and is a giant first step for our industry’s entry into the productivity puzzle and its lucrative paybacks.”

BACnet International Awards at the 2017 ControlTrends Awards

The 2017 BACnet International Awards Presentation. As we begin our video highlights from the 2016 ControlTrends Awards, we want to give special thanks to our Presenting Sponsor BACnet International. The BACnet protocol is at the heart of so many of the building automation and smart building control systems, that we thought it only appropriate to begin with a tribute to the dedicated, hard working men and women that make BACnet so great.

using People and Smart Buildings Technology

Ken Sinclair’s Connection Community Collaboratory at AHR Expo 2017. “Power to the People, Power to the People, Ride on…”These lyrics are in a song written by the great John Lennon. If John had known our friend Ken Sinclair or attended his Connection Community Collaboratory, the lyrics would have been more like this: “Power of the People, Power of the People, Ride on” Everyday we see technology advancements in the Smart Building’s controls market, better controllers, better software and better analytics. Is there a correlation between how good a technology can be and the people that use it? This is just one of the questions that, the ever insightful, Ken Sinclair, poses to a group of Industry Experts at this year’s Connection Community Collaboratory, entitled “The Power of People, an Industry Discussion.”

2017 AHR Expo in Las Vegas Breaks Three All-Time Records For Overall Show Attendance, Size. WESTPORT, Conn., February 17, 2017 – The International Exposition Company announced today that the 2017 International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition (AHR Expo), held January 30 through February 1 in Las Vegas, has officially broken three of the Show’s all-time records. With 68,615 attending the 2017 Show, AHR Expo superseded its former all-time attendance record of 61,674 (set at the 2015 Show in Chicago) by 11.2 percent. This number was also 28.7 percent greater than the overall attendance (totaling 53,324) at the last AHR Expo held in Las Vegas in 2011.

The 2016 ControlTrends Awards took center stage at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas. The music nightclub, embellished with rock history relics and museum pieces, was the ideal place to celebrate the heroes and superstars of our HVAC and the Building Automation industries. Marc Petock and Kimberly Brown co-hosted the ControlTrends Awards ceremony, and BACnet International’s Andy McMillan spearheaded the BACnet International Awards. The 2016 Top Gun Awards recipients were recognized (separate post to follow), as was Sarah Monteleone, who received the coveted Petock Award. The highlight of the evening was the induction of Jack McGowan, Steven Bushby, and Ken Sinclair into the ControlTrends Awards Hall of Fame. In recognition of his career contributions to the BACnet protocol, Steven Bushby was also inducted into the BACnet International Hall of Fame. Photo and video highlights to follow!

BACnet International is an industry association that facilitates the successful use of the BACnet protocol in building automation and control systems through interoperability testing, educational programs and promotional activities. BACnet International oversees operation of the BACnet Testing Labs (BTL) and maintains a global listing of tested products. The BACnet standard was developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and has been made publicly available so that manufacturers can create interoperable systems of products. BACnet International complements the work of the ASHRAE standards committee and BACnet-related interest groups around the world.

BACnet International members include building owners, consulting engineers and facility managers, as well as companies involved in the design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning and maintenance of control equipment that uses BACnet for communication.

Who should belong to BACnet® International?
Manufacturers of building automation equipment
HVAC products and controls
Fire/life safety systems
Security and access control systems
Lighting control systems
Elevator/vertical transport equipment
Systems integrators and installers of building automation equipment
Consulting engineers and end users that have a significant interest in BACnet®
Independent software vendors that are developing BACnet® products
Anyone with a passion for open systems protocols

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Join a Committee
BACnet® International invites you to join in our mission to encourage the use of BACnet® technology in building automation and control systems through interoperability testing, education programs, and promotional activities. BACnet® International committees welcome the participation of new members looking for ways to contribute to the organization. Opportunities exist in several areas. Click here for more information.

ControlTalk NOW — Smart Buildings VideoCast|PodCast for week ending December 12, 2016 congratulates the 2016 ControlTrends Awards finalists! ControlTrends would like to thank the ControlTrends Community members who participated in the nomination process, and now that we’ve entered the final voting phase, please make sure to check your email for your official voting ballot, or go to the ControlTrends website and click on the voting link in the upper right-hand corner. It’s going to be a magical evening with all the Hollywood Red Carpet and Banquet trimmings. If you are going to be in Las Vegas for the AHR EXPO 2017, reach out to one of our participating sponsors to see if they might have a ticket for you!

Congratulations to the 2016 CONTROLTRENDS AWARDS CATEGORY FINALISTS who will competing for awards in 24 Categories. The winners will be announced live from the stage of the Hard Rock Cafe, January 29, 2016. Special Award presentations will include: BACnet International, Project Haystack, ControlTrends Hall of Fame Inductee, Petock Award, and 2016 ControlTrends Young Guns.

As IoT continues to intersect with the Smart Buildings Controls Industry, more and more new players are showing up in our space with proven solutions that will work well in our applications. Ken and I had the chance to connect with just such a company, Optigo Networks. We had the privilege of speaking with their CEO Pook-Ping Yao. We were very impressed with Ping and his product solutions. Check out the video below to see the elegance and efficiency of the of the Optigo Connect network solution.

This week’s ControlTalk NOW reviews publisher and owner of Automated Buildings, Ken Sinclair’s 2015 Connected Community Collaboratory. This unique and informative video series captures the wisdom and insights of some of the brightest minds in Smart Building and HVAC Industries, teaming John Petze, SkyFoundry with Marc Petock, Lynxspring; Andy McMillan, BACnet International; Paul Oswald, ESI; and Jim O’Callaghan, EnOcean Inc. generated powerful experiential knowledge — shared in a very consumable video format. Don’t miss! Four more videos sections to follow.

Marc Petock, Vice President Marketing, Lynxspring drew attention to the reality that cyber security considerations were absent when the founding protocols were established. The industry as a whole was unaware of, or naive to, the dangers that cyber-terrorism now poses to our industry. The solution requires a collaboratory response, because no single business or party can remedy the threat by itself. It requires awareness and dialogue at every level: manufacturers, C-Suites, systems integrators, service providers, and building owners need to pro-actively deal with all of the existing and potential issues.

BACnet International President, Andy McMillan’s thought-provoking dialogue was a compelling case for managed lighting and the natural power of lighting where focus has shifted from the energy-savings aspects to hospitals releasing patients in shorter periods of time (circadian rhythm), learn well classrooms that ramp students’ energy and alertness, and retailers that sell more of the things they want to sell — these are the nouveau marketing ways. Also, lighting problems are in the construction and procurement processes. Much more collaboration required.

This year’s theme was “Our Connection Community and the Internet of Things” ( CCIoT). The meeting was designed to be fast moving and expected the attendees to have a basic understanding of the evolving connection communities’ needs, and a list of required reading from the presenting thought leaders was provided to get attendees up-to-speed. Presenters were given five minutes after which, Ken Sinclair served as moderator to ask a few questions for clarity. No power points allowed; only old school face-to-face collaborating. Great stuff.

Introducing Honeywell’s Q50204 Retrofit Globe Valve Linkage. Honeywell is pleased to introduce their new Q5024 globe valve retrofit linkage. This linkage allows you to use Honeywell Direct Coupled Actuators (DCAs) to retrofit most manufacturers’ globe valves in the field, with no valve disassembly required. This linkage is easy to install and the wide variety of collar combinations fit most of your globe valve retrofit jobs. Save money and time by replacing old electrical or pneumatic actuators with reliable Honeywell DCAs. View as a PDF.

Share Your Knowledge – Bring Your Experience to Haystack Connect 2015. Planning for Haystack Connect 2015 is well underway. With a little over 4 months before the conference kicks off, the event has 14 major sponsors and exhibitors as well as 3 Media sponsors, with new companies signing up every week. See the current sponsors here: www.haystackconnect.org/sponsors. The technical program is taking shape with a number of papers and presentations submitted on a wide range of topics around the conference themes that include Data Modeling, Hardware, Analytics, Cyber Security, Energy, Wireless and more. Consider joining the community at the Haystack Connect event — submit a presentation and share your expertise.

Lynxspring Announces 2nd Generation Modbus to BACnet® Bridge. Lee’s Summit, MO – February 2, 2015: Lynxspring, a premier developer and provider of open, IP-control solutions for building automation, energy management, cyber protection, and device-to-enterprise integration today announced the release of the OnyxxTM-MB311, their 2nd generation Modbus to BACnet Bridge solution. Embedded with a Lynxspring’s Smart ModuleTM and running Lynxspring’s HelixxTM IP-software framework, the Onyxx-MB311 is more powerful and takes Modbus to BACnet protocol translation to the next level.

Better Buildings Summit, May 27-29. 2015 — Registration Now Open! Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, DC. This year, the Better Buildings Summit is expanding into new sectors and engaging a diverse set of market leaders. Over two and a half days Better Buildings partners and stakeholders will come together in Washington D.C. and participate in sessions and meetings focused on the sharing of the most successful strategies for achieving energy savings through energy efficiency. Check out our interactive Agenda At A Glance and be sure to register today.

ACI Releases New “Universal” Dry Media Differential Pressure Transmitter. ACI understands that sensor applications can often differ from job to job. To accomodate most differential pressure sensing applications, we now offer a universal range option. A single unit, A/DP2-10U, will give you field adjustable ranges of o to 1″, 0 to 2.5″, 0 to 5″, and 0 to 10″ and output flexibility of 4 to 20 mA, 0-5 VDC, 0-10 VDC, and 4-20 VDC. This is critical for optimizing pressure within your facility.

Belimo ZIP Economizer Training. On Thursday, February 12, 11:30-12:30 EST, Stromquist will be live streaming a training session on Belimo’s award winning ZIP Economizer. Belimo’s product specialist will be on hand to explain what makes this product so unique and how it can make saving energy easier. The ZIP Economizer is the most technologically advanced Airside Economizer solution in the market and is designed to provide the most energy savings through advanced economizer logic strategies.

ControlTrends Awards Highlight: Neptronic Wins Vendor of The Year: Small Manufacturer. Founded in 1976, Neptronic is a private corporation that designs, manufactures and distributes products for the HVAC industry. Their product line includes intelligent controllers, electronic actuators, actuated valves, humidifiers and electric heaters.Neptronic products are designed and manufactured by over 250 dedicated employees in their 7,500 m2 (80,000 ft2) state-of-the-art facility located in Montreal, Canada.

Live Training Rewind: Revisit the Belimo Team as they teach the ControlTrends Community about the Belimo Zip Economizer. This is a rewind of the Live Stream Belimo Training held Febuary 12, 2015 at the Stromquist & Company training center. Belimo’s product specialist explains what makes this product so unique and how it can make saving energy easier. The ZIP Economizer is the most technologically advanced Airside Economizer solution in the market and is designed to provide the most energy savings through advanced economizer logic strategies.

2015 Niagara Forum — open 4 innovation — April 19-21 2015, in London. While everyone’s talking about the Internet of Things, Vykon is pioneering solutions for the Open Internet of Things. With nearly a half-million instances deployed worldwide, the Niagara Framework® represents the power of open — and the future of innovation. Discover the possibilities at the 2015 Niagara Forum in London, April 19-21. Learn what truly open systems can achieve for our partners and their customers, and get a firsthand look at our next generation platform, including Niagara 4 and our next generation hardware, JACE 8000.